


The Aftermath

by GraceElizabeth



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Season/Series 09 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:38:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1736507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraceElizabeth/pseuds/GraceElizabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel is dealing with the news of Dean's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Aftermath

One week. It had only been one week since Castiel, Angel of the Lord, found out that Dean Winchester was dead. It felt like far longer.  
He hadn’t returned to the bunker yet. He couldn’t bring himself to go to one of the few places that Dean Winchester could have called a home.  
Of course, he should be able to deal with loss, especially the deaths of loved ones. He had been forced to in the past.  
But this time… This time it was Dean. Dean, whom he pulled from Hell. To whom Castiel gave everything, even when there was nothing but darkness to offer.  
Whom he loved.  
——  
“Cas, where are you? Dean… Dean is dead. I need you here. He’d need you here.” Castiel had lost count of the number of voicemails he’d gotten. They were all the same and only one thing registered: Dean was dead.  
-  
Sam Winchester slammed the phone on the table in frustration, Castiel was unreachable. Dean was dead. Again. And Sam had to watch him die.  
Again.  
The man gave a bitter laugh and reached for another bottle of whiskey from Dean’s quickly dwindling supply. His fifth that morning. Or maybe sixth. He’d lost count. Oh, what grief will do to you.  
——  
It had been two weeks. Cas had uttered hardly a word. Still trying to process it. Still hoping that if he didn’t say anything it would cease to be true.  
But it wouldn’t.  
Dean Winchester was still gone.  
-  
In six thousand years, Castiel had only made one other proclamation on the celestial airwaves. When the righteous man was raised all those years ago, he joyfully made it known that Dean Winchester had been saved.  
This time was different.  
The plaintive voice of a broken angel rang: “Dean Winchester is no more.”  
-  
His scream and cries of anguish were enough to chill every angel to the bone.  
——  
Three days later, Cas goes to the bunker. Sam is there, a now-familiar bottle in his hand.

They’re silent for a long time.  
“Dean. He’s gone,” Sam whispers, looking through the angel.  
“I know. I know… Dean is dead,” Castiel says, and if it were anyone but Castiel, Sam could swear the angel’s voice broke. The man shook his head.  
“No, he’s… he’s gone, Cas. His body is gone.”  
-  
They spend the next days in silence, searching everywhere: the bunker, the surroundings, everywhere and anywhere Dean and Sam had been hunting recently. Nothing.  
-  
They finally find him in the back alleyway of a seedy bar, First Blade in hand as he beats the living hell out of some demon.  
“Dean?” Sam asks as if he’s afraid the man will disappear when he turns away.  
Hearing his name, Dean looks up, his black eyes piercing through the hunter and angel.

Castiel opens his mouth but no words emerge. There’s only one thought rushing through him: _After all this time, after all I’ve given up for him, I have failed to save Dean Winchester._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to theactualmishacollins.tumblr.com for being my beta on this!


End file.
